Medidas de Gestao das Pescarias Marinhas e Aquicultura 2019 The State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture 2018 | Page 72

PART 1 WORLD REVIEW
prices for some of its major species, particularly
cod and Atlantic salmon.
value terms than in 2013 despite an ongoing
economic recover y. The embargo has also brought
about a general shift in trade f lows, as volumes
previously sourced from large producers in
Europe such as Norway are currently being
imported from alternative producers such as
Chile and the Faroe Islands, while those suppliers
subject to the embargo have been forced to seek
new markets.
Viet Nam, with exports of USD 7.3 billion in
2016, is the world’s third largest exporter, with
most of its revenue coming from exports of
farmed Pangas catfishes (Pangasius spp.) and
shrimp, in addition to a significant trade in
processed and re-exported products. Viet Nam
has maintained a high GDP growth rate of
around 6 percent per year for the past decade,
and rising income levels have strengthened
consumer demand for relatively expensive
imported fish and fish products such as salmon.
In addition to the above-mentioned countries,
many emerging markets and exporters, such as
Brazil, India and Indonesia, have gained
importance, in part thanks to improved
distribution systems and increasing production.
Thailand has been one of the top exporters of fish
and fish products for decades, but its exports
have declined as its important farmed shrimp
industr y has encountered repeated problems with
disease during the past few years, which are only
gradually being overcome. Thailand is also a
major processing and canning centre for tuna
catches landed by a range of foreign long-
distance f leets, but over the course of 2015 to
2017 weak global demand for canned tuna has
suppressed revenue growth.
Interregional f lows (Figure 20) continue to be
significant, although this trade is often not
adequately ref lected in official statistics, in
particular for Africa and selected countries in
Asia. Oceania, the developing countries of Asia
and the Latin America and the Caribbean region
remain solid net fish exporters. Latin American
exports, comprising primarily shrimp, tuna,
salmon and fishmeal from Ecuador, Chile and
Peru, were boosted in 2016 and again in 2017 by
higher production and an upturn in tuna prices.
Europe and North America are characterized by a
fish trade deficit (Figure 21). Africa is a net importer
in volume terms but a net exporter in terms of
value, ref lecting the higher unit value of exports,
which are destined primarily for developed
countr y markets, particularly Europe. The total
value of African imports of fish and fish products
rose by an average of 17 percent per year in the
period 2000 –2011, but in recent years this rate
has dropped substantially because of reduced
economic growth in many African countries.
African imports have relatively low value,
consisting largely of cheaper small pelagic
species such as mackerel, which represent an
important source of dietar y diversification.
Since its establishment, the European Union has
represented the largest single market for fish and
fish products, followed by the United States of
America and Japan. Combined, in 2016 these
markets accounted for approximately 64 percent
of the total value of world imports of fish and
fish products, or approximately 56 percent if
trade within the European Union is excluded.
Over the course of 2016 and 2017, imports of fish
and fish products grew in all three markets as a
result of strengthened economic fundamentals,
with the added effect of currency appreciation in
the case of the United States of America. In
developed countries, which have large urban
populations of high-income consumers, demand
for fish and fish products far outweighs domestic
production, and consumption levels can only be
maintained through heav y dependence on
imports (see the following section, on
consumption).
A characterizing trend of global trade in fish and
fish products over the past 40 years has been the
significantly faster rate of growth in exports from
developing countries compared with those from
developed countries (Figure 22). From 1976 to 2000,
exports from developing countries increased by
an average of 9.9 percent per year, in value terms,
compared with 7.4 percent for developed
countries. The rate has slowed for both groups in
The trade embargo that has been enforced by the
Russian Federation since mid-2014 has also had
an impact on trade of fish and fish products, with
Russian imports in 2017 lower by 43 percent in
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